Novel
The Quena
La quena
Juana Manuela Gorriti · 1845
Opening lines
Las doce de la noche acababan de sonar en el reloj de la catedral de Lima.
The clock of Lima Cathedral had just struck midnight.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from textos.info
Synopsis
In colonial Peru, Rosa, a young Creole woman, loves Hernán, a mestizo; her father, the oidor Osorio, has promised her to the oidor Ramírez, appointed governor of the Philippines, according to Rocío Ferreira. Hernán is the natural son of María Atahualpa, an indigenous noblewoman, and of a Spanish soldier who tore him from his mother to send him to Spain, as Ferreira and Alicia Poderti report; he returns secretly to Peru. Believing Rosa unfaithful, he takes holy orders, while she marries Ramírez believing him dead.
Context
The story appeared in Lima, in the Revista de Lima in 1845 according to Poderti, or as a serial in El Comercio from 29 January to 4 February 1851, in nine chapters, according to Rocío Ferreira, who found the first instalment and disputes the earlier dates. The author included it in a collection of 1865, expanded to twelve chapters and a conclusion. Poderti compares Hernán's fate with that of the Inca Garcilaso, also the son of a noble Inca woman and a Spanish captain; Ferreira reads in it the rehabilitation of indigenous culture, of the mestizo and of women.
Who it is for
A short novel in Spanish, first published as a serial, translated into English in 2003; no known French translation.
Prizes and reception
For Poderti, the history of the novel in Argentina begins with this story; its author is regarded as the country's first woman novelist.
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